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Oxfordshire air crews begin celebrations with a flypast over The Mall

Oxfordshire air crews begin Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a flypast over The Mall
Oxfordshire air crews begin Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a flypast over The Mall

The Queen and members of the Royal Family watched a 70-aircraft flypast from the Royal Air Force including many personnel from RAF Brize Norton and RAF Benson yesterday.

The aircraft from the three services began the weekend's Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a flypast over The Mall and Buckingham Palace while the Royal Family watched on from the famous Palace balcony.

Starting at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, the aircraft - including the Red Arrows - flew to London and then over a number of southern counties.

Planes could be spotted from Witney, Wantage, Chilton, Didcot and Ardington.

Later in the day, the aircraft attended the Midlands Air Festival at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire before landing at RAF Fairford.

Before the flypast, more than 1,400 soldiers and 250 horses from the British Army’s Household Division took part in the Trooping of the Colour in front of 7,500 ticketed spectators on Horse Guards Parade and another 7,000 at the Queen Victoria Memorial in London.

The Queen's Birthday Parade is the epitome of ceremonial precision and pageantry.

Swords, medals, buttons and breast plates shone while horses and soldiers carried out complex battlefield drill manoeuvres to a spectacular, specially composed programme of music.